Lee pro 1000 or Lee deluxe Turret

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volks_r_us

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Well time as come to speed up things. I found out that you end up firing much more rounds with a pistol then with a precision rifle :yingyang:

My lee Breech kit as only Turtle speed for pistol rounds , what do I do now.

I need some kind of pregressive system. like LEE pro 1000.
need some advice on what to get , I will reload different pistol Caliber (357, 9mm, 40s&W, 45acp, .44mag)
Any way to Mod my Breech kit ?
I think I might need a whole new setup for pistol rounds.
what do you think ?
 
The Pro1000 is a good system. I know people who have them. Expensive to change calibers. Worth the extra $ for the Loadmaster.

The Turret is a good press, too. I still use mine even though I have a Loadmaster. You can do both pistol and rifle ammo on it. You do have to remove the indexing rod and turn the turret manually.

If you already have the kit with scale, powder measure, dies, etc... then I would recommend getting the Cast Turret kit as the lever is stronger and better made and has the tube for primer catching in a bucket.

Or just go for a Loadmaster or a used Dilllon (if you can find one).

addition...

Keep your single stage as you will need it. Decapping (with a universal die or resizing dies) prior to cleaning/storage of brass, bullet pulling with a collet puller, military crimp removal with the RCBS swager and lots of other handy uses will keep the thing in service for a long time. I even use mine as a small press to make gas checks (instead of whacking the tool with a hammer). Too bad yours isn't the cast iron press or you could have even swaged bullets with the thing.
 
coreyd said:
The Lee Pro 1000 is cheap enough that I have bought one for each caliber...
Click to expand...

That's what my buddies who own them do. One of them said you have to change the shell plate AND the shell carrier to change calibers. And obviously another turret. The Loadmaster you just have to change the shell plate so that's why I went with one of those. Plus you get 5 stations instead of 3 so you can crimp on the same machine at the same time.

Do you really have to change both on the Pro1000? Or can you just change the shell plate?
 
medicstimpy said:
That's what my buddies who own them do. One of them said you have to change the shell plate AND the shell carrier to change calibers. And obviously another turret. The Loadmaster you just have to change the shell plate so that's why I went with one of those. Plus you get 5 stations instead of 3 so you can crimp on the same machine at the same time.

Do you really have to change both on the Pro1000? Or can you just change the shell plate?
Click to expand...

a lot of the cartridges use same head dimensions ( 45, 308, 3006) and 9mm uses the same as 40 and 357 sig , so there's no need to chage the shelplate-
as for the carrier, the reason you have to change that is that there's 2 components- the plate on the 9mm has a BUSHING in the centre TO CENTRE IT IN THE FEEDWAY - TO CHANGE TO OTHER CALIBERS you have to either buy a different plate without the bushing or knock it out of there
and the case feeder slider- the 9mm uses a specila "stepped " one, and the other 2 are either large or small- this applies to the loadmaster as well as they share the same shell feeder- but to change sliders all you do is disconnect the arm, slide the old one off, and the new one on- simple as pie
 
I am an Ex-Lee 1000 and Loadmaster user. The Lee progressives are junk.
Save a little and look for something else - RCBS, Dillon, Hornady all have decent options these days.
 
kind of funny how junk lasts 25 years- i got my first 1000 in 1990- and my turret in 1986 - i had FAR more trouble with the loadmaster than the 1000- bought a floor model in the stoor and everybody had had a go at it- must have been cycled by everybody in the place- anyway, it works well now
 
What still boggles my mind is how you people can work with a 3 hole progressive for pistol rounds. Do you actually FCD the rounds on a single stage afterwards or seat and crimp on the 3rd stage?
 
I have the Turret press and the Loadmaster, the shell plate for the Loadmaster will accomadate 9mm and .40cal, you can gt it set up for 9mm and then drill the cse feeder to take .40cal and then only have to change the dies to switch calibres. .40cal is a breeze on the Loadmaster and loading 100 rd takes like 15 minutes. Most people don't seem to bother with the bullet feeder.

I use my turret press for both rifle and pistol calibres. In pistol it will load about 150rds per hour if everything goes right. It's a simple press and reliable, just get extra rachets for it as they are the only part that wears frequently (about every 6 months) For the loadmaster, get extra primer pawls as they get scrunched.
 
Freedom Ventures said:
I am an Ex-Lee 1000 and Loadmaster user. The Lee progressives are junk.
Save a little and look for something else - RCBS, Dillon, Hornady all have decent options these days.
Click to expand...

+1 on getting a good progressive instead of a Lee. The long-run equipment cost difference between good and cheap equipment is negligible compared to your consumables costs. To paraphrase the Filson company slogan, you "might as well have the best".
 
Uncle Rico said:
What still boggles my mind is how you people can work with a 3 hole progressive for pistol rounds. Do you actually FCD the rounds on a single stage afterwards or seat and crimp on the 3rd stage?
Click to expand...

you seat and crimp on the third stage
the factory crimp die is only needed for revolvers, and then i run it through my turret with the action bar removed
 
I listen to everyone and laugh as everyone has their own opinions.

You go with what you can afford.
(From Canadian Stores...)
Lee 1000 (w/dies & Shell Plate & Simple case feeder) ~ $350
Hornady LnL-AP (w/o dies, w/o shell plate) ~$600
Dillon 650XL (w/o dies) ~ $800

Example on returns.
Factory 180gr .40 TMJ = $0.36 per round
Reloaded 180gr .40 plated = $0.16 per round (Assuming you already have cases for cost of zero)
Savings is ~ $0.20 per round.
Lee-1000 equates to 1750 rounds.
Hornady LnL-AP equates to 3000 rounds.
Dillon 650XL = 4000 rounds.

All have their pros and cons. I did the Lee-1000 as
Lee-1000
Pros: Cost, comes with dies, rudimentary case feeder (Holds nearly 100 .40 cases), does NOT feed a primer if no case at that station. Small space constraints on the bench.
Cons: Horribly tempermental primer system. Non-existant spent primer collection area. Does not come with multiple size primer feeds. Small and compact for bullet seating. No real add ons for increased performance.

For the rest I refer you to Acrashb's review of the the Lee Loadmaster/Hornady LnL-AP/Dillon 650.

http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php?t=127691

Or his PDF of it HERE

13 pages of information and review that you should read if you are wanting true comparisons.

Now. I started nearly a decade ago with a single RCBS Rockchucker I inherited from my uncle. In the last 5 years I had accumulated 3 Lee-1000's (.38/.357, .40, and one to setup in .223). I currently load less than 10K rounds a year on my trio of Lee's and have had zero issues with the .38/.357 setup, and intermittant case feed issues with the .40 setup. (I also usually hand prime in fron t of a TV, but when I don't I ensure that I routinely clean and "armor all" my primer feeds and put nice thick o-rings on the "primer shaker post", which equals no primer issues).

However, I decided that I wanted to increase my reloading on progressives and recently bought a Hornady LnL-AP from my local gun store to help support our small Canadian gun stores. (I'd rather spend the extra 5% and help out my favorite personal gun store survive than give it to the states or the big useless stores (Bass Pro, etc...). Besides. The Lee cannot handle 30-06 and I need to feed my Garand....
 
t-star said:
you seat and crimp on the third stage
the factory crimp die is only needed for revolvers, and then i run it through my turret with the action bar removed
Click to expand...
Uh - sorry - but it's the other way around. When you use the Lee Bullet Seating die to crimp, you get a roll crimp, which is acceptable / good for revolvers, but useless on autos that might headspace on the case mouth. It's impossible to taper crimp and seat at the same time, which Lee finally acknowledged by making the factory taper crimp die, a station for it on the jammaster and later on the turret. ;)
 
t-star said:
kind of funny how junk lasts 25 years- i got my first 1000 in 1990- and my turret in 1986 - i had FAR more trouble with the loadmaster than the 1000- bought a floor model in the stoor and everybody had had a go at it- must have been cycled by everybody in the place- anyway, it works well now
Click to expand...
What quantity of rounds are you outputting per month and have you ever actually tried another brand of press? I never knew my Lees were so bad until I had loaded 1000 rounds on another press without a stopage to mess with the press.
 
i have a dillon 550 as well-which is set up for 308 and i hardly use-typically i'll run the lees in 100 round batches, which MAY be the secret- i only do 2 boxes or so that's about all the primer feed will carry- and i've learned a few things along the way- like the 15 degree tilt to the front to "help " the primer feed along, and bypassing the sensor so i get a primer every time,rather than if there's a case there - that was a cause of a great deal of my frustration- as far as the factory crimp die, i've never used one except on the 44, and i've done a lot of 45, 9mm never needed it until i got into revolvers-all i can say is that the lees have worked for me for the last 30 odd years - and dillon et al were FAR out of my price range- the only reason i have the 550 is i was shooting the REAL m14 at the time and we had 20 round mags- even then, i still don't care for the manual indexing- too much chance of a double charge-
but then again, i'll take a ruger over a s&w -
 
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